Lingering Words
by Eliza.Cava.Shep
Summary: AU. Ellis Grey never got Alzheimers but is still disappointed in Meredith. One night, she goes too far and Meredith finds herself needing Derek. Will Ellis find out about their relationship? What will she do? (Warning: Mature Themes and Abuse)
1. 1- I Do

**So this is an AU story if Ellis hadn't gotten Alzheimer's and she still worked at the hospital. I had the idea for this after going back and watching some old episodes and just felt like writing because it's the weekend ;P**

 **Enjoy and please don't forget to review to let me know if you want more.**

* * *

Meredith closed the door to her house as quietly as she could, making her way with cautious steps towards the stairs in hopes to not have a confrontation with her mother. She made it to her room, packed a bag, and had made it to the door without being noticed when her plan was utterly foiled.

"I heard you botched a craniotomy today. You almost killed a man. If Dr Shepherd hadn't been there to clean up after you, he would be dead." Her mother's cold voice called from behind her. She sighed, closing her eyes and turning on her heel to face the woman, who had a sour look on her face and pursed lips.

"It was a simple complication and _Dr Shepherd_ fixed it easily. I'm an intern, and Seattle Grace is a teaching hospital. I'm supposed to make mistakes." Meredith defended, her heart pounding in her chest. She rarely defended herself against her mother, but that night, she was fed up. She had only come home to pack a bag of clothes before she was going over to Derek's and getting away from her mother for a few days, and she didn't need their latest argument fresh on her mind.

"Well, unfortunately, you're also a Grey, which means you have a reputation to uphold, one you've done quite a good job of tarnishing so far in your miserable life." Her mother spat. The words cut through her like a knife and she looked to the floor, the hatred in her mother's eyes sending shivers down her spine.

"You're terrible. Utterly terrible." Her mother started as tears jumped to Meredith's eyes. "You disappoint me every day that you make trouble in that hospital. I really wish I could tell people that you have potential, but the truth is, I'm just praying that you can get someone rich to see through your disgusting personality and marry you for sex, because, honestly Meredith, you will never amount to anything. There are days when I wonder why I didn't drop you somewhere as soon as I realized you were useless, but you should be thanking me for at least having a few motherly instincts. Yet, you're just an ungrateful brat even after all these years and I'm truly embarrassed to be related to you." She continued. Meredith stayed silent and let the tears fall from her eyes and soak her face, her hands shaking as she steadied them on the strap of her bag.

"I hope you don't think whoever you've packed that bag for actually cares about you. Everyone knows you'll never find someone who loves you. For your sake, you should just stick to meaningless sex. It's about the only thing you're close to being good at. Probably because you do it so much." She said, gesturing towards the hastily packed overnight bag. Meredith's legs began to wobble and she shook her head, her voice shaky and weak as she spoke.

"I'm leaving, okay? Isn't that what you want? Can't you just let me leave so we don't have to deal with each other?!" She cried, barely able to see through her tears. Her mother groaned in anger, her hands forming into fists as she stormed towards her daughter.

" _You are such a b*itch_!" She screamed, striking the intern across the face. Meredith gasped in surprise, her hand shooting up to cradle her cheek as tears cascaded down her face.

"Get out! Get out of my house, get out of my life, get out! I hope I never have to look at your disgusting face again you little rat! GET OUT!" She screamed. Meredith scurried away, throwing open the door and running to the car. Her body shook with sobs as pain radiated across her tear-drenched face and she drove away, gripping the steering wheel so hard that her knuckles turned white. This had been the worst fight they had in a long time, and her mother's words echoed in her mind over and over again, seemingly endless torment repeating over and over as she drove to the only place she could think of: Derek's Apartment.

Normally, she would go to the hospital and find an empty on-call room to sleep in or if there were none, she would sleep in the locker room. If there were people there, she would find the nearest bathroom and sleep on the floor, which thankfully didn't happen often. People always wondered why some days she was the first one to the hospital and other days she was the last, but it all depended on her mother... and sometimes Derek if he kept her up all night.

As she drove, she was unable to think of anything else other than the hatred that had burned in her mother's eyes and cascading pain that still radiated from her cheek. Her mother's words echoed in her mind and tears soaked her face over and over again.

She pulled into the first parking space she could find and jumped out of the car, her bag still slewn over her shoulder. She threw the door shut and locked it, making her way towards the brightly lit building in the darkness of the night. She walking in and jumped in an elevator, closing the doors quickly before anyone else could get on. She selected his floor and waited for the doors to ding so that she could step out.

 _I hope you don't think whoever you packed that bag for really cares about you..._

As soon as she was out of the elevator, she ran towards his apartment, knocking desperately on the door and hoping that he wasn't still at the hospital.

 _I'm just praying that you can get someone rich to see through your disgusting personality and marry you for sex..._

When there was no answer, she slid down the door and gathered herself in a heap on the floor, sobbing silently against the cold metal.

 _Everyone knows you'll never find someone who loves you..._

"Meredith?" Her trance was broken when she heard his voice, seeing him walking towards her with a concerned look on his face. There was no use in running anymore, not when he had already seen her. She didn't have the strength to run away from him because, in that moment, she needed him. She didn't want to admit it, but she needed him.

Derek had just gotten off the elevator when he saw her, curled up under his door and shaking. He called her name, approaching her and seeing that she was crying. He saw that her face was turning redder on one side and had swelled noticeably. He quickened his pace, seeing that he got her attention and feeling his heart break when she looked up at him, her eyes filled with only pain.

"Meredith, what's wrong?" he asked as he reached her, and suddenly his heart dropped into his stomach as he saw her face clearly. The redness on her cheek was roughly in the shape of a hand, puffing out from her face and swelling up. Just as he reached her, she began to cry harder, the tears already soaking her face being replaced by newer, fresher ones.

He pulled out his keys and opened his apartment door, allowing her to walk inside and closing the door behind them. Immediately, she turned fresh tears in her eyes, and collapsed into him, sobbing loudly and feeling his arms around her. She made multiple attempts to speak but all of them failed, causing her to erupt into more hysterical crying.

Derek was seriously worried about who had done this to her and very anxious to know, but Meredith was his first priority. He wanted to make sure she was okay and he wanted to be there for her before anything else. If it meant letting her cry into him for hours, he would do it in a heartbeat.

"Let's get you some water, alright?" He asked when her sobs became dry and raspy. She nodded weakly and he carried her to the couch, setting her down on the soft leather and placing a blanket over her shaking body. He moved quickly, grabbing a glass from the cabinet and filling it with cold water as fast as he could and then rushing back to her, handing the water to her gently and climbing onto the couch next to her.

She sipped the water tentatively at first and then began to gulp it down, feeling the freezing cold liquid slide down her throat, which had been stripped from sobbing and crying. Derek wrapped his strong arms around her as she placed the empty glass on the end table, snuggling into his embrace. She suddenly remembered their plans for dinner and jumped up, turning to look at him and wiping the tears from her face.

"I'm sorry." She croaked, and he looked at her, perplexed.

"What are you sorry for?" He asked softly and she sighed, looking towards his neat kitchen.

"We had plans... for dinner... I'm sorry, I'm just ruining everything." She sighed, leaning back against the couch. He jumped up, cradling her face in his hand and being careful not to touch where the still prominent handprint had swelled. She looked down at the ground and he tilted her head up slightly, forcing her to look at him.

"Hey, hey, that is not true. Whatever happened to you tonight... even if you're not okay with telling me, I'm here. And I'm glad you're here." He said quietly, releasing her face and placing a gentle kiss on her forehead before resuming his position with his arms around her. She turned and buried her face in his shirt, allowing him to rest his head on top of hers and wonder what could have happened that put her in this state.

He hoped it wasn't something that he did, he couldn't handle the guilt of thinking he might have done this to her. She must have sensed this because she looked up at him with her teary green eyes and finally told him everything.

"It's my mother. She heard about the surgery today and she caught me before I got out of the house." She said. Derek's eyes went wide and he reached his hand up, turning her face as gently as he could to look at the reddened area. He saw a small cut where her mother's ring must have sliced her, which had dripped blood down her cheek. She hissed in pain when he touched it and he pulled away, apologizing softly.

"Don't look at me like that." She muttered, turning away from him.

"Like what?"

"Like I'm some little girl who's been abused and deserves to be felt sorry for. I'm not. I'm not a little girl and I don't deserve you feeling sorry for me." She said. Derek frowned, surprised at how poorly she spoke of herself. He had never seen this side of Meredith before, her vulnerable and scared side. Sure, he knew she was dark and twisty, but she had always been confident and strong in front of him. he had never seen her this upset.

"My mother is the great Ellis Grey. She can't do anything wrong. She's amazing, she's won awards, she's made countless medical breakthroughs... and yet... she has made one mistake. That mistake haunts her every day of her life, and she's not afraid to hide it. That mistake disappoints her with every moment that it exists. That mistake... it's me." She cried. Derek looked at her, dumbfounded, and struggled to find words, any words at all, that he could say to her.

"She hates me. I can never make her proud of me, I can never be good enough. I'm not good enough. Because I sleep with my attending and I mess up easy surgeries and I make friends who cut L-VAD wires..." She trailed off, the list of all the times that her mother had yelled at her running through her mind. Derek still stared, aghast at her as she paused, clearly thinking.

"Before my father left, the only thing they could agree on was how much they hated me. He was always the one that got physical first. He hurt a lot more. Then he left and she blamed me. She got angrier, more aggressive. Every time I would come home with anything less than perfection, she would yell at me, call me horrible things and tell me how much she hated me. Eventually, I figured out it wasn't normal, but I couldn't leave. I didn't have anywhere to go. A couple times, I tried running away to the hospital, but.. she always found me. She pretended to be a worried mother up until we got home, and she was angrier than ever. Richard never saw any of it happening, but I think he just didn't want to imagine that she could be flawed. I don't blame him, honestly. I never have." She sighed. Derek finally found the strength to speak.

"Meredith... you are not a mistake. You are good enough. Even if your mother doesn't think you're good enough for her, you are good enough for me. You are more than good enough for me, you are amazing. I never knew how strong you were, and to survive this... you are amazing. They don't deserve to be proud of you. She can't take credit for how amazing you are. You are amazing despite her. And you deserve everything you have because you've worked. You've worked hard and you've survived. And trust me, she's made plenty of mistakes. You're not one of them." He said. She had turned to look at him, the tears in her bright green eyes dancing as they filled with hope. The hope slowly transformed into something more complex, something that both of them knew as dangerous but felt anyway. It was love.

He leaned down and he kissed her, his hands cradling her face but careful not to cause her any pain. She reached up and steadied her shaking hands in his hair, her fingers running through the mess of curls. Derek wiped the tears from her face, inhaling her scent and feeling the tips of his fingers in her hair. He slowly pushed her down on the couch so that he was laying on top of her, using his arms to stop himself from crushing her small form.

They pulled away for a moment and he gave her his best smile, the one he knew always made her laugh. The sound of her giggling filled his ears and he was filled with happiness, the smile on his face growing brighter if possible. He leaned down and kissed her again, both of their giggling filling each other with joy and washing away all of the pain.

"I love you." He whispered, so softly only they could hear it. Meredith's face transformed to surprise and Derek was stunned to see a flicker of pain in her eyes as she looked up at him.

 _Everyone knows you'll never find someone who loves you._

"You do?" She asked, tears flooding to her eyes. _Shut up, mom._

"I do."

* * *

 **Ugh, I can't handle Derek's dreaminess. He's just so... ahhh! Anyway, if you enjoyed this, please leave a review and let me know if I should continue this or just leave it as a one-shot. Also, I don't really know when this story takes place, but it's somewhere between the season 2 finale (Prom) and 3-16/17 (Ferry Crash). As another note, Meredith is going to be a little bit OOC in this story because part of the reason why Meredith is who she is in the series is because of her mother and her Alzheimer's so if she didn't have Alzheimer's that would have changed Meredith's character and personality a lot.**

 **Kisses!**

 **-E**


	2. 2- Reveal

The next day, Derek woke Meredith up early for work, having already made a pot of coffee and breakfast for both of them.

"Thank you." She said, smiling as he handed her a plate of delicious looking French toast. He sat down on the couch next to her, his own plate in his hand, and they ate together. Neither of them had thought about what the day would bring until Derek was cleaning up.

"Oh no..." he said when his phone dinged. Meredith looked up from her clothes, which she was in the process of changing.

"What?"

"They just sent out the assignments for the week..." It was all he needed to say for her to fall back onto the couch, her head in her hands. He sighed, walking over to her and rubbing her back comfortingly.

"I can get April to switch with you, she's on Neuro this week." He offered. She shook her head, standing up and continuing to change her clothes.

"April is too soft, she'll tear her to pieces. She's gonna be in a bad mood, and I'm the only one that knows how to handle her. I've been doing it my whole life, I'll be okay." She said, finishing changing and slinging her bag over her shoulder.

"That's the thing. She'll tear _you_ apart. I saw what she did to you last night, and I don't want her to do it again." He said, grabbing her hand to stop her from leaving. She sighed and shook her head at him, allowing her hand to slip out of his grip.

"I'll be fine, Derek. Don't worry about me." She said, turning and walking through the door.

"You're my girlfriend! It's my job to worry about you!" He called after her. She ignored him and left for the hospital, dread of the horrible day she was about to experience washing over her. _They should all be thanking me._

XxXxX

She arrived at the hospital and saw her mother standing at the nurses station, her lips pursed in their normal 'pissed off' expression. Slowly, she approached her, taking apprehensive steps masked with feigned confidence so that no one suspected her of anything.

"Oh, don't tell me you're on my service." Her mother groaned. Meredith looked at the ground and shrugged, wanting to say something but feeling frozen in anxiety.

She felt her arm being grabbed and she was jerked into a nearby on-call room, where her very agitated looking mother closed the door behind her.

"Now, you listen to me. I don't want any crap from you today. No messing around, no sneaking away, and no begging for surgeries. You do exactly what I tell you, nothing more, nothing less. Don't think I'll forget about last night any time soon, because I won't. This is hell for both of us, trust me." She spat quickly. She caught her breath for a second and then spoke again before Meredith had a chance to respond.

"Now, you will check on all of my patients and prep 21-04 and 36-17 for surgery, and let Cristina Yang know that she'll be scrubbing in with me at 4:00." Ellis said, thrusting a chart into Meredith's stomach.

"B-but I'm on your service today..." Meredith said softly. Her mother gave her a death stare and inhaled sharply, filling Meredith with fear as she brushed past the older woman, biting her lip to keep it from quivering.

"I'll get it done right away." She called behind her, refusing to meet her mother's eyes.

"Oh, and stop biting your lip! It makes you look like a stupid three year old!" Her mother yelled after her. Meredith rushed down the hall, ducking into the first empty room and closing the door, leaning back against it and catching her breath.

Tears flooded to her eyes and she sunk to the floor, folding in on herself and curling into a ball. She let tears roll down her face for a few minutes before wiping them away, standing up, and leaving to go check on her mother's patients.

XxXxX

Derek was distracted all day. He couldn't stop worrying about Meredith and her mother, wondering if she was handling as well as she said she would. Deep down, he knew she wasn't, but to stop it from driving him crazy, he told himself she was fine.

XxXxX

Ellis stood in her surgery next to Cristina Yang, the most promising of the residents and also, unfortunately, her daughter's best friend. They were performing a simple surgery, nothing life-threatening or emergent. Just something to take her mind off of how angry she was at Meredith. _How dare she speak to me like that. After everything I've given her, the ungrateful brat._

She tried to focus on anything but her own thoughts as she listened to the scrub nurses gossiping as usual.

"Have you heard who the Middle Grey is dating?" One of them said. Each of the Dr. Greys had a nickname, Ellis was Big Grey, Meredith was Middle Grey, and Lexie was Little Grey. Ellis did her best to stay away from Lexie, just the thought of her making the general surgeon uncomfortable.

"No, I haven't. Who is it?" The other nurse asked. Ellis remembered back to the night before, how Meredith had a bag packed and she assumed she was going over to a man's house.

"She's dating Shepherd." The first nurse said. Both of the surgeons in the OR froze, Ellis out of shock and Cristina in fear. Their eyes went wide over their surgical masks and they stopped what they were doing.

"Meredith is dating Derek Shepherd?!" Her mother almost screamed. Cristina turned to look at her, eyes wide with fear and shock. Ellis looked back at her, anger in her eyes.

"Did you know about this?! Of course you knew about it, you're her best friend. Goddammit I swear I will..." She trailed off, dropping her instruments and storming out the OR, ripping off her gown and mask in the process.

The two scrub nurses froze as everyone looked around, wondering what to do.

"You know what, pack her, we will continue this surgery later." Cristina ordered, running out of the OR after Ellis.

She was too late. The attending had already found her daughter and yanked her into a deserted supply closet, locking the door behind them. Rage burned in her eyes like fire as she stared down at her daughter, who was wondering what had made her mother so angry. Before she could open her mouth, Ellis's hand reached back and she slapped Meredith hard across the face, earning a surprised cry of pain from the younger Grey.

" _Derek Shepherd?!_ Are you kidding me?!" She yelled. Meredith's heart dropped into her stomach and her eyes went wide.

"Yeah, you're busted, and I'm mad. I'm really mad. How could be such an idiot? Sleeping with an attending for surgeries?! I knew you were an idiot but, god, this is just ridiculous! Why are you so determined to embarrass me? Why are you obsessed with disappointing me? What is wrong with you?!" She screamed, pushing Meredith hard against the metal shelf.

The younger surgeon had the breath knocked out of her as she gasped, feeling her head smash hard into the cold metal. She felt blood dripping down the back of her head and her vision blurred slightly, yet she stayed standing.

"Why couldn't I have a normal kid? Why couldn't I have a kid like Cristina Yang, who actually accomplished things and follows orders? Why couldn't I have a kid like Miranda Bailey, who knows when to stick up for herself and when to shut up? Why couldn't I have a kid like George O'Malley, who cares about people enlighten to jump in front of a bus for a stranger? You know what, I wish it had been you at that bus stop. Maybe he wouldn't have pushed you out of the way, and we wouldn't be short any potential." Her mother spat. She wobbled on her feet and held herself up with her arms, blinking rapidly to stay conscious.

"I'm done with you. I'm just _done_!" She cried, striking her daughter across the face again. This sent her crashing to the floor, her head banging against the hard tile and causing her to instantly lose consciousness. Her mother shook her head in disgust, looking down at her daughter for a moment longer before turning and walking out of the supple closet.

 **Ellis is so evil!! :(**

 **Kisses!**

 **-E**


	3. 3- Discovery

**So, my information was inconsistent in the last chapter. This story doesn't really fit very well on the timeline, so I'm imagining it in a different universe where George died and Izzie left a lot sooner. Derek and Meredith are not married, and McPost-It has not happened yet. They haven't met Zola yet either. Fetus MerDer. Enjoy.**

X

Derek walked briskly down the hall, his eyes resting on Cristina and filling with relief.

"Cristina! Have you seen Meredith? She's not answering her phone." He said, running up to her. The intern looked up at him with fear in her eyes.

"Derek, her mom found out. About you and her. She seemed really angry, she stormed out of the OR and I haven't seen either of them since." Cristina said. Derek froze, his hand covering his mouth as anxieties ran through his mind.

"How mad?" He asked cautiously.

"Well, she dropped everything and ran out of the OR in the middle of a surgery and she was muttering a bunch of stuff to herself, but I couldn't hear what she was saying.

Derek was silent for a few seconds, his heart beginning to pound in his chest.

"How long?" He asked. She furrowed her eyebrows.

"What?"

"How long has it been since she found out?" He asked. Cristina shook her head.

"I don't know, maybe half an hour." She shrugged.

"We have to find her. Now. Search every room of this damn hospital, and find her." He said, beginning to rush off.

"Why? What's wrong, do you know something?" She called after him. He stopped, turning on his heel to address her again.

"Do you want to help Meredith or not? Find her." He said. Turning quickly and running down the hallway. Cristina took a moment, watching him open every door and look frantically inside the room, before she realized that whatever he knew, it was urgent, and she needed to find Meredith fast. The intern turned and rushed down the opposite hallway, ducking into rooms and quickly scanning them before moving to the next one. For some reason, she felt like her friend may be in danger.

X

Derek was panicking. If Cristina was right, it had been over an hour since Ellis had left the OR. He ran from room to room, ducking inside and looking around frantically, much to some patient's dismay.

He didn't care. All he cared about was Meredith. If she was okay, if she was hurt, if she was bleeding out in some dark alleyway in the middle of nowhere. His mind spun like a tornado, fabricating a list of every possible thing that could go wrong. He almost didn't see the figure laying on the ground in the supply closet.

His mouth fell open as he looked down and saw her, barely concious, laying on the ground with tears soaking her face. She had a small pool of blood under her head and the cut on her face had re-opened, surrounded by more redness and swelling. She was staring blankly ahead of her, breathing slowly and raspily, her hands shaking in front of her.

He dived down to her, picking her up and holding her head so that she was looking at him. Her glossy eyes cleared slightly and she blinked hazily, her lips parting.

"Deh..." she tried to speak, her face contorting when the sound came out incorrectly.

"Deh... Deh... Deh?! Deh!" She began to panic, repeatedly trying to speak but unable to. Derek's heart pounded and his breathing quickened as he quickly lifted her in his arms, paging Cristina 9-1-1 and running to the ER.

"Meredith, don't try to speak. You've had a head trauma, but I'm going to fix you. I'm gonna fix you, don't worry, you're going to be fine. Just relax, Meredith, relax." He said when she continued to try to talk. She quieted, the tears running down her face slowly stopping, and closed her eyes. He felt her fall unconscious in his arms but did nothing to stop her. Only focusing on getting her to the ER where she could be helped.

Derek rushed into the bay, seeing Dr. Bailey sitting at the nurses station and letting out a sigh of relief.

"Miranda! I need help, you have to help her!" He yelled, placing Meredith's unconscious body onto the ER bed. Cristina ran up to him, gasping as she saw her friend and repeatedly asking him what happened.

"Oh, god! Meredith, what happened to her?! Derek? Derek, what happened to her, how did this happen??" She cried, inspecting the wound on the back of Meredith's head. It was bleeding, but not very deep, though it was obvious that there was brain damage. Bailey rushed over, seeing who the patient was and not hesitating to ask the same questions.

"I... I found her- I found her in a supply closet... she was conscious, only barely, but she couldn't speak and her pupils were dilated, she was shaking, and she passed out on the way here." He said weakly. Bailey shook her head.

"Okay, but how did this happen?" She asked. His stomach dropped and he leaned on the wall for support.

"Ellis Grey." Was all he could say. Miranda looked at him for more.

"Yeah, alright, we should page her, but how did this happen to her?" She asked, getting agitated.

"NO! Do not page Ellis Grey! Whatever you do, do not page her." He almost yelled.

"Why not? I'd want to know if my daughter was in the ER with severe head trauma." Bailey said.

"Not if you were the one who put her there." Derek sighed. Both Bailey and Cristina froze, wide eyed and open mouthed, staring at him.

"What?!" Miranda cried. Derek sighed, running his hand through his hair and holding back tears.

"She's been abusing Meredith since she was born. I only found out last night, she came to my apartment after they had a fight and she was a mess... I've never seen her like this, and I warned her to switch off of Ellis's service today, but she said she could handle it and now..." he trailed off, his hand shaking as he held it over his mouth, his other hand stressfully tugging at his hair.

Cristina and Miranda were both still staring at him in shock as he broke down before them, letting all of the anxieties overwhelm him.

"You're telling me..." Bailey started, rage overcoming her. The interns had become like children to her and she had become protective over them as if she were their mother. "That she's been hurting my intern, my baby all this time?!" She said. Derek closed his eyes, feeling a tear fall down his face, and nodded.

"Oh, god, Mer." Cristina said, grabbing her friend's limp hand and holding it in hers. Derek slid down the wall, his face in his hands, as Miranda pulled the curtain all the way around the bed so that no one could see them.

She immediately got to work, doing a neurological exam on the onconscious doctor and checking the wound.

"We need to get her to CT. We've got to get a look at the damage, it seems like there's been blunt trauma in two places." She said, preparing the bed to be moved. Derek looked up suddenly.

"Two? I only saw one, where's the other?" He asked, jumping up from the wall.

"You said you found her in a supply closet, right?" Bailey asked. He was confused by the seemingly unrelated question, but answered anyway.

"Yeah."

"Well, she must have hit her head on one of the shelves and the hit it again on the floor. She probably has a concussion on top of whatever damage we find in the CT." She said, grabbing a nearby towel.

"What's that for?" He asked.

"To cover her face. We can't be wheeling Meredith Grey around the hospital and hope no one notices. This is a Jane Doe from now on, alright?" Bailey said, placing the towel gently over Meredith's face and shielding it from view. Derek gulped and nodded, looking to Cristina, who still had Meredith's hand clutched in hers.

"Alright, let's move." Bailey said, opening the curtain and wheeling the bed towards radiology.

X

After a long and frustrating conversation with the radiologist, they finally convinced him to let them use the CT scanner alone. It took a few minutes for the images to come up, but Derek was relieved when they did.

"Oh, it's only a Hematoma." He sighed. Bailey looked at him incredulously.

"Uh- only a hematoma?!" She cried.

"I mean, I can fix it easily. Look, there's only a small skull fracture right here that hit the artery here and is causing all this bleeding. I just need to get in there-" she cut him off.

"Uh- you can not do this surgery." She said.

"What?! I'm the best neurosurgeon in this hospital, of course I can do it." He said.

"No, I mean you can't do this surgery on her." She said. He looked at her, annoyed.

"If we get someone else, we risk people finding out about this. And if people find out about this, they'll tell Ellis, and she'll know that we know about her and she'll go to the board before we do and cover her tracks. We need to get this fixed quickly and quietly." Derek argued. She couldn't help but agree.

"Fine, do the surgery. I'll go book an OR. And don't worry, I know how to be secretive." She said, leaving him and Cristina to find a place to keep Meredith where no one would find them.

X

They found an empty room nearby and moved her there, somehow loading her onto the bed, transferring her IV, and hooking her up to the heart monitoring machines all within a few minutes. Derek had locked the door behind them and drawn the shades to make it seem like no one was in the room. He paged Bailey to the room with the message Knock- 3,2 and hoped that she understood it.

A few antagonizing minutes later, he heard three knocks on the door, followed by a pause, followed by two knocks, and quickly opened the door. Miranda walked in, allowing him to lock the door behind her, and spoke.

"We're on in twenty minutes."

X

 **Sorry for the horrible cliffhanger and don't forget to leave reviews to let me know what you think and the next chapter should be up ASAP.**

 **Kisses!**

 **-E**


	4. 4- Anxiety

The surgery went smoothly. It didn't take long and Derek and Bailey and Cristina monitoring Meredith constantly through the entire process. They offered to cover her face to help him focus, but he refused. Seeing her face while he was operating always calmed him down.

As soon as they were done, he rushed out of the OR, pulling his gloves off swiftly and ripping the gown off, trying to ignore the confused looks he was getting from his friends.

"What are you doing?" Cristina asked. He turned to look at her, halfway out the door already.

"Get her back to the room and don't let anybody in there. I've arranged an emergency meeting with the board, and I've got to go now." He said, ducking out of the room. Cristina sputtered for a moment, surprised that he neglected to tell them about his meeting, but followed his orders all the same, helping Bailey get Meredith ready to move and wheeling her out of the OR.

X

Derek ran into the conference room, his face flushed and out of breath from sprinting across the hospital.

"I'm sorry I'm late, I was caught up in a surgery." He said, standing at the head of the long table. The impatient looking board directors dismissed him, allowing him to take a seat in the black leather chair.

"So, Dr. Shepherd, why have you called us here today?" The man directly across from him asked. Derek sighed, remembering the speech he had planned in his head the entire surgery.

"I've called you here today because I would like to report a case of domestic abuse within the hospital. I was going to call the police, but I thought I would come to you first considering it is happening within the hospital." He said. Many of the board members seemed stunned, and others didn't seem surprised.

"Are you sure? This is a very serious accusation, Dr. Shepherd." The man across from him said. Derek nodded.

"I'm sure. I've spoken with the victim myself, she can confirm it." He said, trying to keep the images of Meredith laying helpless on the ground from his mind.

"And who exactly is the victim?" One man asked. Derek inhaled deeply so that his voice wouldn't shake as he spoke her name.

"Meredith Grey."

It was as if a shockwave was sent out over the group of surgeons, all of them immediately erupting into murmurs and harsh whispers.

"Who is it that you are accusing?" The man at the end of the table asked, staying surprisingly calm through the conversation.

"Ellis Grey. Her mother." He said confidently, feeling the twinge of rage in his stomach as he spoke her name.

"And How is it that you came across the alleged violence?" The man asked. The room entered an anxious silence as the board members all prepared to hear why he thought that the great Ellis Grey was abusing her daughter.

"Last night, I was on my way home to my apartment, when I saw Meredith sitting on the ground outside my door. She was crying and her face was red and swollen in the shape of a hand, and she had a cut on her cheek the size of a ring. After she calmed down, I asked her what happened and she told me her mother's been abusing her since she was little. She said that her mother hates her and will yell at her for hours about what a disappointment she is and she often gets physical. I thought about it a lot and I realized that there were signs everywhere, and I had just never put two and two together." He explained. Eyebrows were raised throughout the room.

"Are you sure that this isn't just a small overreaction? Maybe something that has to do with your romantic relationship with Dr. Grey?" One person said skeptically. Derek had to take a few deep breaths to stop himself from lashing out.

"Today, in the middle of a surgery, Ellis Grey found out about our _Romantic Relationship._ She was angry and she stormed out of the OR muttering to herself. No one has seen her since. An Hour Later, I found Meredith in a supply closet with head trauma and an identical mark on her face as the one from last night. I've just left the OR from fixing the brain damage caused when she was slammed against the metal shelf of the supply closet and thrown to the floor." He said, trying to keep the anger from his voice. Gasps jumped around the table and wide eyed glances were exchanged across the room.

"Dr. Shepherd, you are aware that an accusation like this requires us to call the police and bring both victim and suspect in for questioning?" The man asked. Derek nodded.

"Meredith is in recovery now. She should be healthy enough to answer questions in a few hours. In the mean time, call the police and _find Ellis Grey_. He said, turning and leaving the room.

Immediately, the board members jumped to action, pulling out their phones to call people and talking to each other about the insanity of the story they had been told. Some didn't believe it, some claimed they knew it all along, and others had already begun to speak poorly about Ellis Grey, who still had not been found.

X

Derek walked into the hospital room and saw Cristina holding Meredith's hand, sitting in a chair beside her bed. Miranda was fiddling with her IV bag when he entered and both of them looked up at him expectantly.

"It's done. I reported her to the board and they've called the police. They're searching for her now, but they're going to want to ask Meredith a lot of questions when she wakes up. We're going to need to be there for her when that happens." He said. Both surgeons let out a sigh of relief that there was no bad new and went back to what they were doing.

Derek pulled up a chair at the other side of Meredith's bed and took her unoccupied hand, kissing it softly and feeling her skin rubbing against his.

"She's never going to hurt you again."

X

 **Last night I watched the season 9 finale for the first time. Whoa. So intense. I'm already in love with baby Bailey and the friendship between Cristina and Derek and how they keep each other sane while Meredith's in surgery. 3**

 **Kisses!**

 **-E**


	5. 5- Guilt

Ellis Grey sat in the Emerald City Bar, a line of empty shot glasses turned over on the table in front of her. She waved at the bartender to give her another, smiling weakly at him as he quickly filled up a small glass and placed it in front of her. She sighed.

 _Did I go too far today? What if someone finds her and she talks? No, she wouldn't talk. She's too much of a coward. I'll just wait for the phone call right here, and act like the terrified mother I'm supposed to be. No one ever suspected the mother. That's why I've gotten away with this for so long._

She tilted her head back and drank the entire glass of alcohol in a single sip. Her throat burned as the liquid travelled down to her stomach, sending a shiver down her spine as she asked for another.

 _That phone should ring any minute now. I'll drive as fast as I can to the hospital and rush inside, screaming 'where's my baby girl' and maybe add in some fake tears for the affect. Yes, that's perfect. I'm terrified and worried and can't even begin to think who would do such a thing as this. 'I found out about her relationship with Dr. Shepherd and went straight to the bar. I know he's dangerous and he's not good for her. I just want the best for my daughter, officer!'_

She drank the next shot just as the door to the bar opened and a small group of people stepped in. Ellis didn't notice. They saw her sitting at the bar and quickly approached her, the three of them surrounding her to allow no escape. She finally looked up and noticed them, almost jumping out of her seat.

"Oh, god! Hello, officers! How can I help you?" She asked, using her best startled and innocent voice. One of the officers was scowling at her and the other was tried his best to keep a neutral face. She couldn't see the dirty look the man behind her was giving her.

"Your daughter has been admitted to the hospital with brain damage caused by an assault inside of a supply closet. She's finished with corrective surgery and is in the process of healing, but her doctor says he doesn't know what her brain function is until she wakes up." The officer said. She gasped as realistically as she could, jumping up from the barstool. _Brain damage? I didn't hit her that hard... did I?_

"Oh, god! I've got to get down there and see her, she has to be okay!" She cried in faked shock. The officer behind her narrowed his eyes at her.

"First, we need to bring you in for questioning." He said. Her eyes went wide, and this time it wasn't fake.

"What?!" She cried. _She told. The little rat told someone, I'm going to kill her._

"We've has a doctor file a formal complaint against you and he has made an accusation saying that you were the one who did this to her." The officer said coldly. Her mouth fell open. _He?! Who... Derek Shepherd. She told him, she told him and he told the police. No, no no!_

"Officer, this is all just a big misunderstanding. I was here at the time she was attacked. I came straight here when I learned about her relationship with Derek Shepherd." She said. The officers all exchanged surprised glances before one of the stepped up, pulling something out of his pocket.

"Ellis Grey, you are under arrest for assault and domestic violence. You have the right to remain silent, anything you say can and will be used against you in the court of law." He said, grabbing her arms and placing her wrists in handcuffs before she could react. Her eyes went wide and her mouth fell open as the Policemen lead her out of the bar. _What?! What did I do wrong? How did I give it away? Oh... oh, no. They never told me what time she was attacked. Damn it, Ellis, why are you so stupid?!_

She was pushed into a police car and they began to drive towards the police station. She stayed silent the entire time, tears running down her face. _I knew I went too far._

X

Back at the hospital, news about Meredith's injury had spread like wildfire. All of her friends rushed to make sure she was okay, bewildered at why they hadn't been told about her condition sooner.

The door to the hospital room burst open and Derek, Cristina, and Miranda all looked up to see Lexie, Mark, Alex, and Richard all rushing into the room. Someone closed the door and they all found a place to stand, looking at the three surgeons in the room accusingly.

"Why are we just now finding out about this?!" Callie asked, gesturing towards the unconscious Meredith in the hospital bed. Derek gulped.

"Um... you all may want to sit down for this." He said, watching as they all scrambled for the few chairs in the room and some took places on the bed beside Meredith's feet. The rest of them leaned against the wall, looking at him expectantly.

"Well... um... last night, I came home to my apartment, and I saw Meredith sitting on the ground outside my door. She was crying and she had a big red swollen handprint on her face. She told me that her mother has been abusing her since she was a baby." He said. Eyes went wide. Jaws dropped. Silence filled the room.

"Today, Ellis found out about our relationship in the middle of a surgery. She stormed out and no one has seen her since. An Hour Later, I found Meredith lying in a supply closet, barely conscious after being slammed against a shelf and thrown to the ground. I didn't want to tell anybody about this before I went to the board because if Ellis found out that someone knew, she would go to the board and cover her own tracks before we could do anything about it. I'm sorry that I couldn't tell you all, but it was for Meredith's own safety." He said.

Lexie Grey stood from her chair, quickly followed by Mark Sloan, and approached her unconscious sister. Her hand was shaking over her mouth as she reached her other hand out to brush Meredith's bangs from her face, tears dripping down her face. She felt Mark's hand on her shoulder, reminding her that he was there and reassuring her.

"Oh, god, Meredith..." She cried, wondering if the father that she had been raised by had ever known or participated in her sister's abuse. A deep sickened feeling made her stomach drop and she was frozen, her entire body shaking and tears soaking her face as her hand slowly stroked Meredith's hair.

Mark saw the pain in his best friend's eyes. He saw the guilt that he knew Derek was feeling and the worry on his face and he knew exactly what was going through the neurosurgeon's mind. He knew that Derek blamed himself. He knew that a small part of his friend was scared that she would never wake up. He saw the pain in his bright blue eyes and felt a pang of pain in his own heart as he looked down at the doctor in the hospital bed. _How did none of us see this was happening right under our noses?_

Cristina sat, her best friend's hand clutched between her own, her head laying down on top of their stack of hands as if she were asleep, with tears threatening to spill from her eyes. She didn't know why she was so upset. She had only known Meredith for two years, and yet, they'd been through so much. The day she found out Derek was married, which was the same day Cristina found out she was pregnant... the bomb, cutting an L-VAD wire, Cristina's miscarriage, Meredith's appendectomy, George's death, Izzie's cancer... She realized that Meredith was the best friend she'd ever had. _We had no idea how strong she really was._

Richard had been standing against the wall for a few minutes, his hand covering his face in a state of shock. Overwhelming guilt had washed over him and positioned itself in the pit of his stomach, making him wish he could throw up but refusing to allow him to move. His eyes couldn't leave Meredith's face. The girl that was like a daughter to him. He had practically raised her in the hospital. He'd watched her grow up and he'd known her for longer than anyone other than her mother. Her mother.

He didn't want to believe that the woman he'd fallen in love with was actually capable of doing this to someone for so long and still living her life. He refused to accept that Ellis Grey could abuse a child their entire life without him realizing it. He denied to himself that he had seen the signs and chosen to ignore them for the selfish reason that confronting them could tarnish his relationship with Ellis, the one thing that he cared about most. And, though their relationship had been his first priority, he couldn't help but hate himself for watching a child's life being destroyed and doing nothing to stop it.

Finally, the shock that had frozen him to the wall released him and he staggered to the trash can beside him, kneeling in front of it and emptying the contents of his stomach before another thought could enter his mind. _How could I let this happen?_

Alex Karev sat silently in his chair, his head cradled in his hands. Not many thoughts ran through his mind. He could barely think. He didn't know what to think. _Why do things like this happen to people like her?_

Miranda Bailey looked over the room, her lips pursed, and saw the impact that the doctor in the bed had on each and every person that she met. She saw how Meredith touched them all in a different way and she sighed as she imagined what disarray the hospital would go to if the surgeon were to be hit by a bus or pushed off a bridge suddenly. _How do you start a year with five interns and end it with this?_

Derek's phone began to vibrate in his pocket and he pulled it out, seeing that it was the board and answering it quickly. The room went silent as he held up his hand to signal that it was important and plugged his ear with his finger.

"Hello?" He said. The doctors around the room all stared anxiously at him, seeing him looo up nervously every few seconds and finally, he sighed loudly, looking down to the ground. Faces fell in the crowd of surgeons, seeing his reaction and assuming that the news was bad.

"Okay. Alright. Well, Meredith still hasn't woken up yet but she should soon, and I'll call you as soon as she does. Thank you. Goodnight." He hung up the phone. All of Meredith's friends looked up at him expectantly, seeing him swallow nervously.

"They got her." He said, a smile appearing on his face. Lexie chuckled in slight disbelief. Mark smiled as he saw the relief in Derek's eyes. Cristina closed her eyes and let out the breath she was holding, laying her head back down on the bed. Richard stared at the ground, his breathing shaky, no idea how to feel. Alex was chuckling, thinking of how good it would feel to see the woman that did this to his friend behind bars. Bailey smirked and shook her head, relief flooding over her. Derek took the space that Lexie and Mark had previously occupied beside Meredith's bed and picked up her hand, his own hand resting on her cheek.

Cristina and Derek were the only ones to notice when her hand twitched. They both looked up at each other with wide eyes and then looked back at Meredith, who's eyes were beginning to flutter open. She let out a low groan which captured everyone's attention as her bright green pupils rested on Derek and she smiled.

"H...Hi..." she breathed. Derek inhaled shakily and felt tears in his eyes as he smiled back at her, his hand stroking her cheek.

"Hello, beautiful."


	6. 6- I Won

Derek continued to smile at her as she looked around slowly and groggily. Her vision focused and she saw many figures moving in towards her. The movement overwhelmed her and she turned back to Derek, looking at him worriedly.

"It's alright, it's just us." He said softly, allowing her to look and see that the figures were in fact her friends. Her mind became less foggy and the events that led her to that moment flooded back to her and her eyes jumped to Derek, filled with urgency.

"You're safe now, Meredith. She can't hurt you anymore." He said, confirming her fear. She looked around again, this time seeing the guilty and sympathetic looks that her friends were giving her, and sighed shakily, tears in her eyes.

She looked over at Cristina, who had her hand firmly planted in Meredith's hair, and was thankful when she didn't see the same look in her eyes. She saw Richard standing on the wall and her heart filled with grief, seeing the guilt he was feeling and wishing she could tell him it wasn't his fault.

"Meredith, I need to check your brain function, I want to make sure there's no permanent damage." Derek said. Meredith only nodded. She couldn't look him in the eyes, she couldn't look anyone in the eyes. She didn't want their pity. She didn't want their sympathy. The only person she could look at was Cristina. She was the only one who didn't make her feel like a puppy fished out of a lake.

She wiggles her fingers and her toes and she followed Derek's finger with her eyes until finally, he declared that she had no residual damage, much to all of their relief. Meredith finally spoke again when everyone looked at her for a reaction.

"What... happened?" She rasped. She felt Derek's hand around hers but still couldn't meet his gaze, instead looking down at the sheets of the bed.

"Well, a while after you were... attacked... I found you in the supply closet. You were barely conscious but you couldn't speak, and that's when I knew you had brain damage." Derek said. She could hear in his voice that he needed her to look at him, but she couldn't. She felt too much guilt.

"I brought you to the ER, where I saw Bailey and Cristina. They helped me get you to surgery so I could fix the damage." He said. Meredith held up her hand to stop him.

"Where's... my... mother?" She croaked. The room was silent for a moment and her heartbeat kicked up. She hated that the heart monitor attached to her showed her fear. She hated that her friends could see her weakness.

"It's okay, Meredith. The police found her, they're holding her for questioning." He said. Meredith's eyes went wide.

"Police?" She cried, her voice dying in the second syllable as she felt as if her throat was being stripped dry.

"Meredith, I had to tell them. I couldn't let you go on like this." He said. She felt tears in her eyes.

"Everyone... knows?" She spoke quietly so almost no one could hear it, staring down at the tears dropping from her face onto the bedsheets.

"Not everyone. Not yet. Just the board and the people in this room." Derek said. She sighed shakily.

"What... now?" She asked.

"Well, once you feel ready, the police and the board want to talk to you and get a statement." He said. She closed her eyes tightly, giving her brain a moment to comprehend what was happening. _I could be free. I could be done. It could be over. Finally._

"Now." She said. Derek shook his head.

"Meredith, you can barely speak, now isn't a good-"

" _Now._ " She persisted. He sighed, cupping her face gently and trying to get her to look at him. She wouldn't meet his gaze.

"Meredith..." She pulled her face away from his hand, looking back down at the sheets.

"Why... why can't you look at me, Meredith?" He asked softly. Tears flowed down her face and she forced herself to speak through the stripping pain in her throat.

"I...don't..want...pity. My...fault." She said. The room was silent.

"Meredith, it was not your fault..." Cristina started.

"Yes it was!" Meredith said as loud as she could, her voice reducing to a harsh rasp from strain. Derek laid his hand on her shoulder to calm her down.

"I... didn't...tell." She said. She looked up at Cristina once more, tears flooding from her eyes.

"Coward." She stated.

"Meredith, you are not a coward. You are strong. You survived and didn't need-" Lexie started.

"Coward." Meredith said, slightly weaker. Lexie looked like she was ready to cry.

"Listen, Grey, when my Dad was beating my mom, I did nothing. I just sat there for years and watched him. You stood up to your mom, and that take balls." Alex said. Meredith let out a shaky breath, her voice breaking through her tears.

"Coward." She cried.

"Stop it, Meredith." Derek said, trying anything to get her to stop demeaning herself.

"Coward" She whispered to herself, her body shaking slightly,

"Meredith, stop. You're not a coward." Derek said, leaning closer to her.

"Cowar-" She was cut off when Derek kissed her, causing her to gasp but not letting her pull away. He held her face in his hand and pressed his lips against hers, feeling the way she relaxed under him.

Finally, he pulled away but kept his face within inches of hers, finally meeting her bright green eyes with his blue ones.

"You are the bravest person in this hospital. And you are _winning_. She's losing. Because you're here. With me. And your friends. And she's sitting down at the police station with handcuffs on her wrists. You've won." He said. She smiled, her eyes filling with tears.

"I... won."


	7. 7-Panic

Meredith stared into his blue eyes for a moment, allowing herself to be lost and feeling her breathing stabilize. She let a final tear fall from her eye before she remembered that they weren't alone in the room and looked behind him. She saw Richard standing against the wall, staring at the ground, and was filled with guilt.

Derek noticed her sudden distraction and turned, following her gaze to the Chief and knowing what she needed without her having to say anything.

"Do you need anything, or should we leave you alone?" He asked. She looked up at him with a silent _thank you_ on her face.

"Water." She said, hoping to relieve the dryness in her throat as her friends slowly cleared out of the room. Derek grabbed the plastic cup filled with cold water off of the nightstand and held the straw up to Meredith's dry lips. She sighed as the cold liquid slid down her throat, seeming to hydrate her entire body.

Derek smiled at her. It was a warm smile, like he was just happy to be looking at her. Meredith smiled back. Her smile was only mostly real, as the majority of hers were. He only ever understood why in that moment. The smiles faded from both of their faces. Derek stood and left the room.

It was just the two of them left. Richard and Meredith. Neither of them spoke for a while. Richard stared at his feet and Meredith stared at him. Finally, she filled the silence.

"I never blamed you." She said, surprised at the clarity of her voice. He still refused to look her at her, his eyes scanning the patterned tile on the floor.

"You were in love. You made her happy. I was thankful for you. You made her happy, and when she was happy... she didn't hate me as much. I was thankful for you." She said. He shook his head, fighting the tears in his eyes.

"What are you thinking?" She asked when he was silent for a while.

"Are you sad, are you mad? Are you mad at me?" She probed. He sighed.

"I'm not mad at you. I'm mad at myself. I should have seen this, I should have noticed it. I've known you since you were three years old. I should have been able to see that you were hurting all this time. It was supposed to be my job to protect you, I was the only one that could have. And I didn't." He said. She felt tears in her own eyes.

"I was _thankful_ for you." She repeated. He finally looked up, his eyes meeting her piercing green ones.

"You shouldn't have been." He said quietly. Before she could react, he had left the room and she was alone. It was only for a moment, but that was all it took. In that one moment, the weight of everything that had happened in the past few days finally washed over her, and it was almost crushing.

Her breaths jumped in her chest and her heartbeat quickened.

 _You're terrible. Utterly terrible._

She felt tears flowing from her eyes and struggled to get air into her lungs.

 _I'm just hoping you can get someone to see through your disgusting personality and marry you for sex, because, honestly Meredith, you will never amount to anything._

Her eyes were wide but she couldn't see and her hands were grasping at the mattress under her.

 _There are days when I wonder why I didn't drop you somewhere as soon as I realized you were useless._

She gasped for air but it wasn't enough. She couldn't get enough air.

 _I hope you don't think whoever you packed that bag for actually cares about you. Everyone knows you'll never find someone who loves you._

She heard other voices, calling out to her, telling her to calm down, but the words didn't register. All that she could do was sob.

 _You are such a b*tch! I hope I never have to look at your disgusting face again you little rat!_

She felt herself moving, being pushed down onto the bed, which was being laced out flat. Her vision was blank but she faintly heard voices and then a prick in her arm and she was plunged into a dream.

XxXxX

Derek had just finished alerting the nurses that Meredith was awake when he heard shouting. He turned and saw people rushing into her room and excused himself, running after them. He entered the room and saw her, sitting up and bawling her eyes out. He rushed up to her, pushing through the other people crowded around her and placing his hand on her back.

"Meredith? What's wrong? Calm down, just breathe, breathe, Meredith!" He said. Her eyes were glassy and she wasn't responding to him, which worried him.

"What's happening?" Lexie cried from behind him. His eyes desperately scanned the room for anything he could use, but nothing caught his eye. Meredith began gasping for air, heaving and sobbing loudly. He turned around to face her friends, a frantic look on his face.

"Is she having a seisure?" Mark asked. Alex pushed through the crowd and even past Derek, something concealed in his hand.

"No, she's having a panic attack. She's going to rip those bandages right off her head, and who knows what damage that would do." He said, reaching her and slowly pushing her down on the bed. Derek jumped behind him, trying to get around him and beginning to shout.

"Wait, what are you doing? Karev, what are you doing with that, put it down!" He yelled when Alex pulled out a syringe.

"I'm sorry, Mer." He said softly before he injected the sedative into her arm and watched as her body went limp. Derek stared at him, his eyes filled with rage and his chest jumping up and down with every breath he took. The other people in the room were looking at him incredulously, with wide eyes and open mouths.

"What the hell did you just do to her?!" Derek almost screamed, his face inches from Alex's.

"Relax. It was a sedative. She could have hurt herself if she thrashing like that. She'll wake up in the next hour, we just have to make sure we don't leave her alone again. It's fine. She's fine." He said, placing his hand on Derek's chest and stepping away from him. He placed the empty syringe on the table.

"I have patients." He muttered when Derek, who had calmed down a little bit, still glared at him. He pushed his way through the group of people a final time and left the room. The surgeons were left looking around at each other in shock.

 **Sorry that I took so long to get this chapter out, I've been rewatching old episodes of the series and haven't written anything in a while.**

 **Kisses!**

 **-E**


	8. 8- Forgiveness

Derek had been sitting by her bed, his head resting on top of her hand for a very long time. He was thankful that he could feel her skin against his, even just a little bit. He was constantly full of fear and anxiety, worried that every moment he spent with her may be his last. He knew it was ridiculous, her mother was in police custody and he was right there to protect her, but he couldn't help but worry that she would have to be alone again.

He looked up at her and saw that her eyes were slowly trying to open. The oxygen mask covering her nose and mouth filled with fog as she breathed in and out through it. Her eyes were barely open and he saw that they were already jumping around the room, searching.

"Meredith..." He said to get her attention. She looked up at him for a moment, shuddering as guilt, shame, and tears filled her eyes.

"What happened?" He asked. Her hand reached up and ripped the oxygen mask off of her face and her eyes looked as far away from him as they could. He touched her hand gently and she flinched away, a tear drifting down her face as she stared at the bedsheets.

"Meredith... you have to talk to me. I can't do this without you. I can't help you if you won't help yourself." He said. She frowned and shook her head.

"I don't need help." She muttered. He grabbed her hand with both of his.

"I can help you. We can all help you." He said gently.

"I don't need help!" She shouted, ripping her arm from his grip. He looked at her with pain in his eyes.

"Meredith..."

"Just... go. Leave me alone. I'm fine." She said. He shook his head.

"I'm not leaving you." He said.

"I'm fine! I don't need your help! I don't need your pity and I don't need you to worry about me!" She cried.

"I'm not leaving you. Even if you think you don't need me. I need you. I can't leave you because I'm scared that someone will hurt you. I can't close my eyes because I'm scared that if I look away, you'll stop breathing or your heart will stop beating. I can't let go of you because I'm scared that the moment I stop touching you, you'll disappear. I don't pity you. You're the strongest woman I know. I do worry about you, because I care. And I do want to help you. Because I love you." He said softly. Her face was drenched in tears as she finally looked up at him.

"I... I don't know what to do, Derek. I'm scared." She admitted. He climbed onto the bed next to her and wrapped his arms around her tiny body, allowing her to nuzzle into his chest.

"It's okay. It's okay to be scared. I'm here, and I'm not gonna let anything happen to you." He whispered soothingly.

"Derek..?" She asked shakily.

"Yes?"

"I...I think I love you too." She breathed. A small smile appeared on her face.

"Yeah... yeah I do. I love you. I love you too." She confirmed. He smiled, stroking her hair.

 _The Next Day_

Lexie walked into her sister's hospital room and found Meredith asleep, with Derek and Cristina sleeping on either side of her bed. Lexie was thankful that her sister was asleep, as Meredith had never been very keen on opening up to her, and she finally understood why. She had known her sister for a while and still hadn't quite known why she seemed to hate her so much, but it made a lot more sense to her, standing in the hospital room and staring at her.

 _She hates me because I represent what she could have been. I was raised by two healthy, happy parents who love me. She had two parents who hated her, one of which was an alcoholic and the other was a dedicated surgeon who was barely ever home. She had no childhood and grew up thinking abuse was normal... and then I came along all bubbly and 'Hi, Meredith! I'm your sister, who got everything that you were robbed of in your life! Let's be friends!' Of course she hated me. I would hate me._

"Lexie?" She was broken from her trance when Meredith called her name softly, so as not to wake up the two sleeping people beside her. Lexie looked up at her sister nervously.

"Oh, I-I'm sorry. I ca- I can go, I'm s-sorry." She stuttered, gulping and pointing to the door awkwardly. She tried and failed to stop herself from looking like a deer in the headlights as she turned to leave the room.

"Don't. Come over here." Meredith said. Lexie turned around, confused.

"Y-you don't have to be nice to me just because I was watching you sleep. Oh, that sounded stalker-y. Sorry. Uh... yeah, you don't have to act like you don't... hate me. You should hate me. I'm... just a living reminder of everything that's been taken from you your entire life. And I'm really sorry that our dad hurt you... and that your mom..." she trailed off, sighing and trying to get back on track.

"Listen, anyway, you don't have to be nice to me just because we're kind of related. I'm just going to go. You have your people here, and... you don't need me messing all of that up." She sighed, making to leave the room again.

"I don't hate you. And you're not messing anything up. None of this is your fault, and you shouldn't feel guilty for it. I shouldn't have been so mean to you. You couldn't help what happened to me, and it wasn't right for me to blame you. I... want to try this again. I want to try us being friends. If you're okay with that, I mean." Meredith said. Lexie looked at her, surprised.

"Oh- oh... oh... Okay." She said, cringing at her awkwardness. "Y-Yeah... that would be nice. That would be really nice, that would be great!" She smiled.

"I'm gonna leave the room now, before I say any more stupid stuff." She said, turning again to leave the room.

"And Lexie?" Meredith called after her. The brunette stopped and turned her head to look at her sister.

"It's not stalker-y. Derek's been doing to for two days straight." She chuckled. Lexie's eyes went wide as she watched the head of dark curls look up at her.

"Uh- um... uhhh... Dr. Shepherd! I... thought you were asleep. I'm sorry..." She stuttered. Once again, she cringed as her brain struggled to turn thoughts into words.

"There's no need to apologize. Also, you're my best friend's girlfriend and my girlfriend's sister... I think you should call me Derek." He gave her his best smile and she nodded awkwardly, running out of the room. Derek raised his eyebrows at Meredith and they both burst into restrained giggles in an attempt to not wake Cristina.

"Is it true? Are you going to give her a chance?" He asked her when their laughter subsided.

"Yeah... I think so." She nodded slightly, looking at the door where Lexie had left.

"I think I will."

 **I'm in love with Lexie's character :D Writing her dialogue is so much fun!**

 **Anyway, I'm sorry I didn't get this chapter out for a while. The next one should be up soon, and I promise it won't just be fluff this time!**

 **Kisses!**

 **-E**


	9. 9- Relief

Meredith woke and felt alone. She sensed people around her, but yet her body was cold and her heart ached. She opened her eyes and was surprised to find they weren't met by striking blue ones. Instead, she saw Cristina, Mark, and Lexie all eating lunch in her room. She would've been comforted, but the utter lack of Derek made her uneasy.

"Where's Derek?" She asked, getting the trio of surgeon's attention. Cristina set her tray of food down and walked over to Meredith's bed, placing her hand on top of her friend's reassuringly.

"He got pulled into an emergency surgery. He should be out soon-" Meredith cut her off.

"I need him." She said shakily. Cristina sighed, placing one of her hands on Meredith's face.

"This surgery is important to him. He's been with this patient for two months, and she just started coding out of nowhere. It's only a hemorrhage, he'll be here soon." Cristina assured her.

"I need someone to hold me. I'm going to have a panic attack and I need someone to hold me if he's not here." Meredith said calmly. She heard her mother's voice in her head getting louder and louder and she knew it wouldn't be long until she was plunged into hysteria.

Cristina exchanged a worried look with Mark and Lexie, who both shot up from their seats and rushed over a moment later. Meredith felt tears jump to her eyes as words echoed through her mind. She wanted Derek. She wanted the comfort and safety that he brought her, but she knew that surgery was important to him. So she sat and begged the horrible words to stop, but they didn't.

When she finally let the tears fall from her eyes, it was Cristina who climbed onto the bed next to her. The intern wrapped her arms around her friend and rubbed her back, shushing her softly and whispering lightly in an attempt to calm her down.

"Make her stop... make it stop... it hurts..." Meredith cried suddenly. Cristina pulled back slightly to look up at the two other surgeons in the room, her expression filled with concern. Mark was the only one that noticed when Meredith's eyes rolled back into her head. He shouted at Cristina to get off the bed just in time, as the blonde surgeon began shaking and thrashing violently just as her feet hit the ground.

"She's seizing!" He called out, jumping onto the bed and holding his girlfriend's sister down. She continued to violently shake and he heard Lexie sobbing behind him, but focused instead on stopping Meredith from hurting herself.

"Page Shepherd. We need to get her to C.T. and figure out what's wrong. I'll bet these aren't just panic attacks." Mark said to Cristina, who was frozen staring at her best friend thrashing in her hospital bed. She shook herself out of the trance and followed the order, paging Derek 9-1-1 and getting the bed ready for transport.

Meredith finally stopped shaking and all three doctors let out sighs of relief as the blonde surgeon came to. She looked up at the man on top of her, effectively crushing her tiny frame, very confused.

Just then, Derek rushed into the room, severely out of breath. His eyes widened as he saw Mark holding his girlfriend down and Cristina preparing to push the bed out of the room.

"What... the hell... happened?" He asked, still trying to get his breathing under control. Mark carefully removed himself from the bed, comforting a still distressed Lexie as soon as his feet hit the ground.

"We thought she was having another panic attack, but then she started seizing. We're taking her down to CT to find the source." Cristina explained. Meredith looked around the room hazily, breathing heavily with her eyes only barely open. She saw Derek and relaxed, her hand reaching out to him instinctively. He took it as they began to roll the bed out of the room, placing his other hand on her face and wiping the tears from her cheeks.

XxXxX

Derek had almost finished closing his patient from her hemorrhage repair when a pager went off. The scrub nurse looked at it and then looked back up at him worriedly.

"It's yours, Dr. Shepherd. 9-1-1." She informed. He sighed.

"Just give me... one second..." he said, focused only on his sutures.

"Doctor Shepherd..." The nurse sounded concerned and he looked up. "I think you want to take this page. It's Doctor Grey." She said. Before anyone could even breathe, he was gone. Out the door and down the hallway faster than anyone had seen him run before. He didn't stop until he was in her room and staring into her eyes.

"What... the hell... happened?"

XxXxX

Derek sat anxiously in the CT control room, staring at the screen and waiting for the scans to come up. He let out a loud sigh of relief when they finally loaded onto the screen.

"There's no bleeding, she's clear." He whispered to himself, still in slight disbelief. Cristina walked into the room and saw that scans had loaded.

"What is it?" She asked. Derek smiled and shook his head.

"She's fine. The seizure must have just been because of the trauma to her head and because she was breathing so hard. Her brain probably wasn't getting much oxygen." He explained. Cristina let out a huge sigh.

"Thank god!"

XxXxX

Hours later, Derek got a phone call from the board and took it in the hallway, leaving Cristina, Mark, and Lexie with Meredith.

When he finally reentered the room, his face was full of worry. Meredith sat up in her bed.

"The board said that they can't hold Ellis much longer without more testimony from you. They need you to talk to them, and soon." He said. Meredith sighed.

"Fine. Let's go." She said. The doctors in the room helped her into a wheelchair and transferred her to a mobile I.V. Before long, they were on their way to the conference room where the board had been assembled already.

"If you get uncomfortable or feel like you're going to have a panic attack, tell me. We can take a break any time you need." Derek said softly to her as he pushed the chair through the door into the conference room.

All of the members of the board looked up upon their entrance, with the head, Jennings, sitting at the end of the table.

"Dr. Grey. So glad you could join us." He announced, gesturing for her to sit at the other end of the table. Derek wheeled her chair over to the empty space and positioned it at the table, locking the wheels and moving to sit down next to her.

"Oh, Dr. Shepherd, I'm afraid we can't have you in here during the meeting. I'm sorry, we can't bend the rules, even for this situation." One of the board members spoke. He looked at Meredith, asking her with his eyes if she would be okay without him. She nodded, but he could tell she would be much more comfortable if she were there. Despite this, he turned and placed a gentle kiss on top of her head, leaning down and whispering in her ear.

"If you get uncomfortable, speak up. Don't be afraid, you can do this. You're strong, don't forget that. I love you." He whispered softly. She kissed his cheek just before he stood up.

"I love you too." She smiled weakly at him as he left the room. As soon as the door was closed, Derek sunk down the wall to the floor just outside in the hallway, hoping to hear some of what was happening. He sighed when he couldn't hear anything and looked up at Cristina, who had been waiting outside.

"The wouldn't let you sit in with them?" She asked, annoyed. He shook his head.

"I'm getting coffee. I'll bring you some, if you want." She offered. He nodded, not daring to look up at her and let her see the worry in his eyes. Instead, he stared at the ground, his arms folded on top of his knees and his forehead resting on his forearms.

"Um, I'm going to take Lexie and find somewhere to sleep. It's been a long day, and we both need to rest. I suggest you think about doing the same." Mark informed him. Derek shook his head.

"I can sleep later. Good luck, though." He said quietly, his gaze still trained on the ground. He heard two sets of footsteps retreating away from him and he was alone.

His loneliness didn't last long, as a few minutes later, a single set of footsteps approached him and sat down beside him. He didn't need to look up to know who it was.

"I have nothing to say to you." He said bitterly.

"Yeah, Okay." Alex Karev answered.

"You shouldn't even be here." Derek spat.

"She's my friend. One of the only people who actually cares about me. I'm not gonna leave her, even if you're mad at me." Alex defended. Derek sighed.

"Well, you weren't so friendly and caring with that needle, were you?" He accused. Alex groaned quietly under his breath.

"It was a sedative. You know as well as I do that she could have ripped the bandages off of her head or caused serious damage to her brain from that thrashing. You also know that if she had ripped those bandages off, her brain would have been exposed and she could easily have had permanent and irreversible damage to all different aspects of her life. I did the same thing I would've done with any other patient, I sedated her to avoid the risk of injury." Alex half-shouted. Derek shook his head.

"If you'd been using your brain, you would've used the IV to inject the sedative instead of climbing on top of her and stabbing a syringe into her arm." The neurosurgeon countered.

"Injecting the sedative directly through her arm sent the drug directly to her bloodstream and to her brain, which let the effects set in much faster than IV meds." Alex defended calmly. Derek let out a dissatisfied huff and shook his head.

"I have coffee!" Cristina called cheerfully from down the hallway. The smile on her face faded when she noticed the palpable tension between the two doctors.

"Oh, yeah, you two alone together is a bad idea. Evil Spawn, scooch." She said, sitting between the two surgeons and handing Derek his coffee.

"Sorry, I didn't expect you to actually show up or I would have gotten you some." She shrugged. Alex scoffed softly and shrugged.

"Whatever."

 **It's my birthday!! Yay!! It's actually almost midnight so its almost over... at least I spent the last couple hours of my birthday writing. :D**

 **The next chapter will be up within the next couple days so look out for it! 3**

 **Kisses!**

 **-E**


	10. 10- Safety

Meredith sat silently in the conference room, staring nervously at the two rows of board members sitting around the table. They all stared back at her.

"At what point did the _abuse_ start?" Jennings asked. Meredith gulped. It was her turn to talk now and she didn't know if her voice was strong enough to.

"I don't know the exact time. It just always happened for as long as I can remember. It was at some point before I was 5." She said softly. The board members nodded and jotted down notes on their papers, putting Meredith even more on edge. She wished Derek was there to just hold her hand.

"And how often would the _abuse_ involve your mother physically harming you?" The man at the head of the table continued. She thought for a moment before she answered.

"It depended on her mood. Sometimes it would be every day and sometimes she would go a week without saying a word to me. It had more to do with what happened in her life than mine." Meredith spoke vaguely, not wanting to mention Richard and possibly get him in trouble.

Her eyes drifted to the door in hopes that she would catch a glimpse of Derek outside, but she only saw the empty hallway. Her hand nervously pushed the hair out of her face.

"Um... Do you have any proof or evidence? Like a video... or a tape recorder?" He asked. Meredith's mouth fell open and her eyebrows furrowed. She stared at him for a moment.

"Who do you think I am?" She asked softly. He looked at her confusedly. "I know you think you've got me figured out. You've read files and heard rumors and stories. But if you really knew who I was, you wouldn't have the nerve to ask that question. I am not someone from one of your movies or books. I am not a protagonist. I am not strong or smart or kind or all of the above.

I've thought my entire life that what happened to me was normal. That everyone's dad left when they were five. That everyone's mom screamed at them when they got home and forced them to go to bed after they did their homework with no dinner because they talked back to a teacher. I thought that all of my friend's moms would slap them or punch them or kick them every time they even breathed wrong in their house.

So, no, I never set up cameras in my house to catch her in the act. I never walked home with a tape recorder down my shirt so you could listen to her scream at me. I don't have proof. But if you really knew me, you would know that I don't make things like this up. I don't play pranks. I'm not the kind of person who would accuse my mother of abusing me my entire life just for kicks. That's who I am. Add that to your file." She spat. The people in the room looked around at each other, stunned. She set her jaw and stared at the flustered police officer challengingly.

"Well, um... I think we have enough information to take this case to court, so uh... thank you... for your time..." He said softly, closing his books and loading up his bag. The rest of the room packed their things up silently, all exchanging shocked looks with each other. Meredith's heart slowly settled back to a normal pace and her breathing evened out. She sat with her eyes closed at the end of the table. She didn't want to see them looking at her. She was tired of people looking at her.

She heard rustling and shuffling and then the door clicked closed. She finally let a single tear streak down her face.

XxXxX

The silence was so thick and tense that it could almost be cut into with a knife. Derek sipped the last of his coffee awkwardly, glancing over at Cristina, who was staring blankly at the wall. Alex sat on the other side of her, twiddling his thumbs nervously.

He looked back at the door and sighed, resting his head against the wall and pulling his knees up to his chest. They had been in there for over half an hour, which felt like days to him. He could have sworn he saw the sun set and rise again through the window.

All three surgeons jumped up as the door swung open and an ensemble of board members and police officers filed out of the room, all having their own conversations. Derek caught a few words but didn't have time to comprehend them before everyone was gone and it was just the three of them standing uselessly in the hallway.

Derek came to his senses and rushed through the almost-closed door. spotting Meredith still sitting at the end of the table and dashing over to her. Her eyes were closed and he noticed a single trail left by a tear on her face and sighed.

"I knew we should have waited. It was stupid of them to pressure you into this so early and I shouldn't have caved. I'm-" She cut him off, her voice soft but strong.

"Stop." She stated. He quieted immediately, looking at her with concern in his eyes.

"I'm fine. It's just... a lot. To think about, to deal with. I'm tired." She assured him. He nodded and placed his hand on top of hers.

"You should rest. I'll take you back to your room." He said. She nodded and finally opened her eyes, turning so that they met his.

"Thank you." She said tenderly.

XxXxX

Derek pushed the wheelchair slowly into the hospital room. He did so quietly so as not to wake up Meredith, who had fallen asleep just moments after they had left the conference room.

He closed the door behind him and sighed, smiling down at his girlfriend. Her head had pulled to the side and her mouth hung open slightly. A soft snore came from her throat and he chuckled.

His left hand snaked under her knees and his right behind her back. He lifted her gently so that she was pressed against his chest. Her head dropped so it was resting against his body. He smiled down at her.

The light streaked in through the window and cast lines of shadows across the bed and the floor. Derek set Meredith down on the bed lightly. He pulled back the sheets and pushed her long, skinny legs under them. Her hands gripped the sheets sleepily and she shifted so that she was laying on her side.

He looked around for a moment and then drew the blinds on the window into the hallway. He pulled his shoes off and climbed up onto the bed. His legs slipped under the sheets and he wrapped his arms around her tiny body, nestling his head into her neck.

"Mmh..." He groaned softly, inhaling her familiar scent and relaxing his muscles. He didn't want to admit it, but he was exhausted. He felt selfish for being tired, especially when Meredith was going through something like that. But he was tired. He just wanted everything to be over. He just wanted her to be safe.

Even when he had his arms around her, even when he felt her physically breathing under him, he felt a constant, overwhelming fear that if he closed his eyes, she would be gone. Ripped from his grasp or having suddenly disappeared without a trace. He was afraid that if he closed his eyes, she would stop breathing. Her heart would stop beating and he would be laying there with his arms wrapped around his dead girlfriend like Izzie to Denny.

So he laid there for hours, feeling the breath enter and exit her lungs. Smelling the scent of her lavender conditioner. Imagining the blood flowing through her body. Listening to her cute, quiet snoring. Wondering what she was dreaming about.

She was safe in his arms. That was all that mattered.

XxXxX

 **Wow this chapter took forever to get out. Sorry about that. I was really caught up in the oneshot I was writing and I was grieving over Derek's death. :(**

 **There will be more!**

 **Kisses!**

 **-E**


	11. 11- Okay

Meredith slowly opened her eyes. She saw the back of Derek's head through the window of her room. Her lips curled into a slight smile as she stared at his dark curls, which had been stuck flat against his head from him laying down next to her for so long. Her smile faded when she realized he was talking to someone. He didn't look happy and his hands were gesticulating the way they always did when he was angry. Her vision focused more and she realized the person was Alex.

She was confused. Why was Derek mad at Alex? He had disappeared after she had her first panic attack and had just been lurking for days, watching her. She could tell he was worried about her but something was keeping him from coming into her room. Was it Derek? Why would Derek not want Alex around her?

Derek threw his arms up and Alex stormed off. The attending stood for a while, rubbing his face with his hands before he walked back into her room and noticed her staring at him.

"You're awake." He smiled. She saw the residual anger in his eyes and the way his smile didn't quite seem real.

"You're mad at Alex." She stated. He sighed and ran his fingers through his hair, sitting down on the edge of her bed with his eyes glued to the floor.

"Yeah, I'm mad at Alex." He said.

"Why?" She asked.

"He hurt you," Derek said almost instinctively. Meredith's expression softened and her eyes tinged with surprise. She wasn't used to people protecting her. She was used to having to protect herself.

"Wh-when did he hurt me?" She shook her head.

"When you had that panic attack. He stabbed you with a needle instead of letting us calm you down." He said bitterly. She sighed softly.

"Alex has done this before. He knows when a panic attack turns into something more than a panic attack. I've had panic attacks my entire life. No one ever calms me down. And it's not like a seizure. You can't just wait for it to end. It doesn't end until I pass out or I hurt myself so badly that my brain finally decides to start up again so I don't die. He did the smart thing. He put me out of my misery before either of those things had to happen. Don't be angry at him, Derek. He did the right thing." She said. Derek looked up at her, his eyes full of sadness.

"I hate what she did to you." He said softly, pushing her hair out of her face. She frowned.

"Be nice to Alex, please. He's been through a lot. I know he seems like a bad guy, but it's not his fault. In the same way that I don't know how to let you love me, he doesn't know how to love people. We're learning how to fit in in this world. We're doing our best." She sniffled. He turned his head to the side and smiled at her.

"Okay." He whispered, leaning in and kissing her softly. She smiled back at him as he climbed up onto the bed next to her.

"Okay." She repeated softly.

XxXxX

 _Three Weeks Later_

Meredith sucked in a sharp breath and clutched Derek's hand harder as they walked into the crowded courtroom. He paused for a moment and gave her an encouraging look. The entire room had gone silent and everyone stared at them as they made their way toward the side of the room designated for the prosecution. Meredith kept her eyes on the ground and focused on her breathing as they reached the seat she was assigned. She sat down and he placed both of his hands on her arms, moving them to hold her face when he noticed her looking nervously at her Mother, who was staring daggers at both of them.

"Hey, hey, don't look at her. Don't even look at her. Look at me. _Look_ at me." He said. She ripped her eyes away from the woman standing across the courtroom and stared back at him, sighing shakily. "You can do this. I know you can. You are strong and you are beautiful. Do not let her or anyone else here scare you." He said softly to her. She nodded weakly and he stood up, kissing the top of her head and walking around the desk to the seating area for loved ones.

Ellis followed him with her eyes. She scowled at him with her jaw set and her eyes narrowed. He met her with an equally disgusted and unforgiving gaze that he didn't even know he was capable of until that moment. He felt as if all of the anger built up inside of him was ready to burst. He forced himself to look away so that he wouldn't jump up and wrap his hands around her neck right then and there.

XxXxX

 _Hours Later_

The judge finally let them out for the day and Derek practically sprinted over to Meredith from his seat. He wrapped his arms around her and smiled.

"You've been so strong. Let's go to Joe's, okay?" He said. She nodded and he took her hand, leading her toward the exit of the courtroom. Before they could leave, Ellis stepped out in front of them. Meredith shrunk into Derek and squeezed his hand so hard both of their hands turned white.

"Dr. Grey," Derek said bitterly, sending the older woman a warning glance, which only caused her to smirk.

"I see your boyfriend has turned into a bodyguard. That's cute. I do hope you know, though, that he won't last. Once he realizes how weak you are, he'll go running for the hills." She said to Meredith, looking Derek up and down skeptically.

"Don't you speak to her like that," Derek ordered, his eyes flaring with anger. Ellis raised her eyebrows at him.

"The bodyguard speaks for her now? Well, I knew you were a coward, but I honestly expected at least a little bit of dignity from you, Meredith." She scoffed. Derek felt Meredith's breathing become shaky and pushed her protectively behind her, setting his jaw and narrowing his eyes at her mother.

"Just leave her alone, Ellis. You've hurt her enough already, so just leave her alone, alright?" He said, his voice rising slightly in warning. The older surgeon's eyes filled with anger and she suddenly dived forward, shoving Derek, who was caught off guard, to the ground and pouncing on top of Meredith. She wrapped her hands around her daughter's neck and stared down into her terrified eyes. Meredith tried to fight her off but her small body was no match for her mother's.

Tears flung from Meredith's eyes as she fought for oxygen, feeling her world start to disintegrate around her. Derek recovered quickly and lunged at Ellis, ripping her hands away from Meredith's throat and pushing her to the floor. He struggled to think of a way to protect his girlfriend, knowing that he wouldn't have time to help her run away before the angry surgeon attacked again. The security guards rushing toward them would take a few more seconds to arrive.

Derek dropped so that he was laying on top of Meredith. He wrapped his arms and legs around her and held on tightly, acting as a human shield for her. Ellis tried to rip him away, but he refused to budge, feeling the extreme, terrified breaths rapidly jumping in and out of his girlfriend's body. He told himself over and over to hold on for one more second. One more second and she would be safe. One more second and the security guards would be there. One more second and everything would be okay.

He felt as Ellis Grey was ripped off of him by the security guards. He heard the metallic snapping of handcuffs. He looked up and saw her being dragged out of the room screaming by at least three guards. He let out a relieved sigh and untangled himself from Meredith, who was sobbing and desperately trying to get air into her lungs. He lifted her gently from the floor and ignored the shocked stares from all of the remaining people in the courtroom as he carried her through the doors.

"Let's just go home, okay?" He asked softly, using one hand to stroke her hair comfortingly.

"O-ok-kay..."

XxXxX

 **So so so sorry I haven't posted a chapter in almost a month! I'm going to be publishing a new story that I've been spending all my time on today so it will hopefully all be worth it. Don't forget to leave a review of what you thought of this chapter. Happily ever after is coming soon, I promise!**

 **Kisses!**

 **-E**


	12. 12- Freedom

"Listen, Dr. Grey. What I'm trying to say here is that you don't have much of a case." The stern-looking lawyer said flatly.

"Well, that's just ridiculous. I'm one of the most well-known surgeons in the country and you're going to let an accusation from a stupid little girl ruin my career?!" Ellis shouted angrily, slamming her handcuffed hands on the table.

"You attempted to murder her in the courtroom in front of the judge and at least thirty witnesses. Are you sure you still want to plead not guilty?" The lawyer reasoned.

"I wasn't trying to kill her! I would've stopped if she passed out! I'm not a monster!" Ellis looked genuinely offended. The lawyer sighed.

"Fine. Okay. I'm going to say it straight. If you plead not guilty, you will lose. Either way, you're looking at years of jail time. Your career is over, Dr. Grey. I'm saying you could get a life sentence with no parole or you could plead guilty and get a lighter sentence. That's your choice right now." She was obviously frustrated.

"You're wrong. Everyone is going to see what a disgusting, manipulative, necrotic person she is and they're going to side with me. You'll see." The surgeon denied, her fingers laced together and her eyes filled with hatred. _This woman needs to be locked up. Soon._

"Alright, Fine, Dr. Grey. I'll see you in the courtroom." Ellis watched as the woman walked off, her chin held high and her eyebrows raised.

 _She'll see_.

XxXxX

Derek was jolted awake when something hit him on the arm. He looked around and noticed Meredith thrashing in the bed next to him, making strange gurgling noises with her eyes rolled back into her head.

"Meredith? Meredith!" He shouted, grabbing her shoulders and gently shaking her. She gasped and shot up to a sitting position, her eyes jumping open and staring at him. "Are you alright?" He asked. She placed one hand on her neck and reached for him with the other one, still gasping for breath.

"N-nightmare." She choked. He wrapped his arms around her tightly.

"It's almost over. She's going to go to jail for a long time and pay for what she did." He assured her. She nodded.

"Let's get dressed." She suggested, wiping the tears from her face. He agreed and they both stood up, approaching their shared closet in her house. She began to search through her clothes as he pulled out a suit and began to get dressed.

"You know, staring at the clothes isn't going to help you get ready faster." He chuckled. She picked his shoe up off the floor and threw it at him.

"I can't find what I'm looking for." She sighed. He walked up behind her, straightening his tie.

"What about... this?" He pulled a blue dress out of the closet and held it up to his body. Meredith stared at it for a moment.

"Not what I'm looking for." She said. He put it back in the closet and watched as she pulled out a maroon turtleneck sweater. "This." She nodded. Derek tilted his head at her, his eyes full of sadness.

"Meredith..." He started, but she interrupted him.

"I'm not walking into that courtroom like _this_! Derek, I've been covering up bruises my entire life, I'll be fine." She said. He continued to stare at her. "What?" She asked.

"I think you should wear the blue dress. Show her that you're not afraid." He pushed the hanger toward her. She stared at the v-neck nervously. "You will look beautiful. I dare you to wear a necklace just to piss her off." He smiled. She smirked at him and put the turtleneck back, bringing the dress into the bathroom to change.

"I'll be right out." She said.

"Oh, come on! I change in front of you every day!" He complained.

"Yeah but I don't try to rip your clothes off the moment you put them on!" She called through the door. He huffed disappointedly.

"Not my fault you can look sexy in anything." He argued.

"You bet I can." She threw open the bathroom door and stepped out in the blue dress. A matching blue necklace hung around her neck, which was red and brown from bruising. He smiled at her and wrapped his arm around her waist.

"See? I'm right." He chuckled and kissed her cheek.

XxXxX

They entered the courtroom a while later and Derek's grip on Meredith's hand tightened protectively. She shrunk herself as much as possible and kept her eyes on the patterned carpet, feeling her mother's stare burning into her.

Derek narrowed his eyes challengingly at Ellis and walked with Meredith over to the prosecution table, where he had convinced the lawyer to allow him to sit. A small smirk found its way to his face when he noticed the three guards surrounding Meredith's mother and the handcuffs on her wrists.

The court was brought to session. Witness after witness spoke of how neglected Meredith was and how she often had bruises and cuts with little to no explanation. Every minute of the trial was more painful for Meredith and all she wanted was to curl up into a ball in Derek's arms and stay there forever.

Her hands instinctively drifted to her neck every few moments as she tried to cover the discoloration. Derek noticed this and placed his hand on top of both of hers, giving her a warning but encouraging look. _She can't do anything. Stop worrying._

Finally, all of the testimonies were finished and the Jury was allowed to vote. Everyone was released for a break while they waited. Derek sat with Meredith while the courtroom cleared out.

"Why are we staying here?" She asked. He gave her a quick kiss.

"It's quiet now. It's too loud out there. Too many people." He said.

"What do you think they'll decide?"

"Meredith, are you kidding? Of course, she's guilty. They all watched her attack you and even the defense witnesses couldn't deny it. She's going to go to jail for a long time." He twirled a tiny section of her hair for a moment.

"I know... but... what if they let her go? What will I do?" She said, her voice laced with fear.

"You'll get a restraining order. She won't be allowed anywhere near you and if she tries to hurt you, she will definitely go to jail." He said calmly. She nodded.

"Okay."

"They're not going to let her go. I'm sure of it." He assured her. She nodded.

"Okay."

XxXxX

The jury came back out within minutes. Meredith gripped Derek's hand tightly and stared nervously at the judge as he asked the foreperson to recite her verdict.

"In the case of Dr. Ellis Grey vs the Commonwealth of Washington, we, the Jury, find the defendant guilty of child abuse and neglect in the first degree and two charges of assault in the first degree." Meredith's mind was blank. She was overcome with shock as a loud scream echoed throughout the courtroom. She caught a last glimpse of her mother being dragged out of the room before she was gone, out of her life forever.

"Meredith?" Derek asked when she still hadn't reacted at all. Tears filled her eyes and she looked up at him. "Are you okay?" He sounded concerned.

"It's over?" She asked weakly.

"Yes, Meredith! It's over. She's gone. She can't hurt you ever again." He said, crouching down and grabbing her hands with his.

"I'm free."

XxXxX

 **That's it. That's the end. It's over.**

 **I know there are still storylines to address and some things that never got covered but I left them open on purpose in case I ever want to come back and write an epilogue.**

 **I'm going to be posting a bunch of one-shots I've been working on soon-ish... as soon as I'm happy with them. Sorry about all of the not-uploading going on... time just keeps passing and words are not coming to my mind.**

 **Kisses!**

 **-E**


End file.
